Brunton Wagonway

A wagonway, marked as 'Old' on the 1st edition OS mapping, so was out of use by 1858. The section shown on the map, running north from a smithy at Kenton Bankfoot to the next field boundary, was subject to earthwork survey and evaluation in 2015 (events 5220 and 4477, report 2016/129). The bank was found to survive as a steeply-sided grassed earthwork with a gently rounded crest approximately 1.4m high. A trial trench found no surviving track or trackway bedding, although the bank overlay a soil containing palaeoenvironmental evidence relating to probable later prehistoric settlement activity. Further excavation was undertaken in 2019 (HER accession pending). The body of the waggonway embankment was exposed with a substantial drainage ditch on the western side of the line and a shallower and narrower eastern ditch. The site has subsequently been built over.
The route has been researched by a member of the public, and the wagonway continues to the north at least as far as NZ 20907 70388. It is visible on lidar as an earthwork running through the eastern edge of Battery Plantation, entering it at NZ 20831 69819, and beyond this as a hollow way. This corresponds with HER 15346.